The Hair-Carpet Weavers Q5: Theme
What's the main theme of the novel? How does the novel explore this theme? How does it leave you feeling about the theme?
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Home › Monthly Book Selections › 161. (September 2026) The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach (also called The Hair Carpet Weavers )
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I guess this was an area where I ended up thinking, yeah, whatever! My take on it was that it was a simple revenge plot focusing on hair to highlight the clash between two rulers. I suppose there's a sense that carpeting an entire planet with hair carpets shows a staggering level of power, but also pettiness.
And of course that was the second level of "what was it about" - the ability of those in power to simply set arbitrary and rather nonsensical goals that the underlings had no choice but to seek to fulfil. As a motif that applies on all kinds of levels, from the family through the workplace to the government. And it's a good topic to explore, and not to forget. But as the driving force behind the whole tale I had a slight sense of being let down.
For me, the theme was how individuals, in all their richness, can get swallowed up by huge systems that have no particular interest in them. I think the pettiness of the revenge was a key part of that. That one trivial bit of childish revenge, and just how many lives, over how much time, were mutilated to fit the will of one man. Especially as that man soon died and his successor couldn't even be bothered enough to stop it.
Connected is how people get moulded to accept the fates put on them. The whole cult of the emperor thing, where people become twisted to want the pain inflicted on them and perpetuate it themselves. Everyone knew the carpet weaving was nonsensical, but they did it anyway, even to the extent of killing their own children when they rebelled.
I think it's a book about humanity, seeing people as precious, and nurturing them. But that's told through the story of what happens when all that is suppressed for the sake of the ego of the powerful.